A Second Caged Bird
by FantasyAddictions
Summary: An SI/OC fic where the main character is born as the brother of Neji Hyūga and quickly realises just how unfortunate that might be. Will he go down the same hate filled path as his brother or will he somehow learn how to make this world manageable? M for language and violence.
1. A Harsh Introduction

**AN:** Hey guys this is my first proper attempt at writing so just warning you that there might be some errors, as I find them I'll try to go back and fix them but if you notice any glaring mistakes hit me up and I'll try to get rid of them. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

There was nothing; no light, no sound, no substance, just an endless expanse of emptiness. It was at this moment I realised I fucked up, or rather that I was fucked. I knew instinctively that this was not right, this was not where I should be. Looking back, I think it was this realisation that initiated the pull. For all at once the nothing was replaced with light, not the warm light of a winter's fire but the cold and dispassionate light of a blue star. Then as suddenly as it had come it was gone and I was in the dark again, though this time it was warm and filled with the sounds of life.

We should all be incredibly thankful that we don't remember being born, because I can tell you that it is not a fun experience. The miracle of life is a disgusting process of being pushed and crushed all while being unable to breathe, yeah not much fun to be had there. Lucky as a not yet born child, time doesn't have too much meaning, regardless of how old you might be in spirit and so after some amount of time I was born. Now I'd heard people say that babies haven't fully developed the ability to see by the time they're born and yep they were right, everything was a weird-ass blur of soft colours, this ironically enough was the thing that surprised me most. I mean should I be at a hospital, one of those creepy, stark white prison cells? I had just been born after all. But no, no hospital for this baby, just warm off white, rice-paper maybe?

It wasn't until weeks later that I realised I hadn't ever seen my mother, surely by now she should have at least had the chance to hold me but no, the only people I saw had to be nurses unless of course my mother in this life consistently changed what shade of brown her hair was and had decided I deserved nothing but polite coddling rather than motherly affection but that seemed unlikely. I had however seen someone who I assumed was my father, he would come in from time to time and make sure I was still alive but that was about it, which was okay though, I assume he is just a pretty busy guy. It was during one of these visits though that I realised I did have a brother, he like me was also just a babe in arms but it was nice to know I probably wouldn't be alone.

Though this was only the very beginning of the weirdness that was my new life, people don't realise it but a baby's sight develops incredibly fast after birth, true it might be an attribute specific to my family but I certainly didn't know that at the time.

The first indication that this might not be the world that I knew and love was my father, more specifically his eyes. They were pure white, almost reminiscent of the cataracts that had formed in the eyes of my beloved cat from what I assume was my previous life. In fact that's exactly what I thought it was at first, I had felt so incredibly sorry for the young man rendered blind so early in his life but that changed when I realised his movement was not impaired in the slightest. His movement I realised was quite possibly the epitome of grace, there was not a single wasted movement, he moved like a world class dancer or perhaps more realistically an insanely talented martial artist. In each of his visits I realised more and more things about him that didn't make sense in a modern world; he could lift me without the barest hint of effort; he wore clothing that I had never seen outside of my one trip to Japan as a child; most importantly perhaps he wore a single headband each and every time he visited though my eyes still hadn't quite developed enough to catch the details on it, much to my dismay. As each of these individual irregularities arose I was largely unconcerned, true my curiosity was in hyper drive but to be completely honest I didn't care, if anything I thought it would be interesting to see how it all panned out if my dad was an internationally acclaimed dancer or something like that. It hadn't even crossed my mind that I might be in a world that wasn't my own.

I think it was around the third time that my father visited that I realised just how fucked I was, he'd taken me in his arms and in the process jostled my sleeping brother who of course in a way that is unique to babies violently burst into ridiculously loud tears. Now's when shit really hit the fan:

"Neji shush"

Suddenly a lot of things made sense. The eyes; they were the white eyes of the Hyūga, the headband; that was the goddamn leaf Hitai-ate, the strength and grace well no shit my dear ole dad was a ninja, Jōnin if I remember right. This of course meant that I was the brother of Neji godforsaken Hyūga, a prodigy of the Hyūga clan style Taijutsu. Shit. It was at this moment that I launched into what might have quite possibly been the biggest tantrum of my new life, there were tears and screaming and hitting and everything else that the Hyūga might have looked down upon in a child but at that moment I truly didn't care cause regardless of what they thought I was screwed, completely and utterly screwed. I was a westerner with very deep morals that had been a part of my personality for far longer than I had been alive in this world, how the hell was I going to drop all of that and become a ninja. At that point the only thing I could think was "I'm going to kill people". Of course this left my poor father with two screaming infants and no one but himself there to take care of them.

To the best of my knowledge Neji's mother had never even been mentioned in the show so it made sense that she wasn't here, though I did make the tentative assumption that she had died in childbirth, perhaps it was a Hyūga thing given the same thing happened to Himawari, Hinata's mother. You might be asking why I immediately assumed my mother was dead and gone rather than thinking of any of the other possible scenarios well I have always lived by one tenant in particular "If you expect the worst you can only have pleasant surprises", and given that her being dead was the most morbid and unfortunate possibility that's exactly what conclusion I jumped to. It does however help that in this circumstance I was right.

The only good thing about this whole scenario was that I had actually quite liked Naruto when I was younger; I wasn't an avid fan by any means but I knew some relevant stuff that might be helpful in allowing me to you know… not be horribly killed before I turned 20, I didn't really want to go through the whole void thing again quite so soon if I could avoid it.

I think I'll skip over the next year or two, the constant boredom doesn't really make for the most exciting of stories funnily enough. By the time I was 6 months old I had started walking which coincidentally was still after my brother, how he managed to beat me given my head start to the whole living thing still frustrates me. But then again he is meant to be a genius so I guess I can let it go. But nevertheless, we were both walking very early, much to the joy of our father and by extension the branch half of the Hyūga clan I would assume.

Apparently in the ninja world, or maybe just the Hyūga clan training started early, like as soon as you could walk. This part of things I had been dreading, I knew Neji was going to be able to beat me black and blue and I really didn't want to have to deal with that as a toddler. I was right too, he was so much better than I was it was laughable, we had been started on the most basic of the Gentle Fist style kata but even then the body of a toddler is not made for much movement, let alone the quick and fluid variety that was required for the Gentle Fist. But nevertheless I still gave it my best, this was the stuff that was going to allow me to survive in the world I mean you don't generally see Hyūga utilising Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, only Taijutsu and even then only the Gentle Fist.

It took months of hard work but I did get the hang of what could only be the most basic of our clan kata, I was nowhere near as good as my brother but I was getting better and that's all that really mattered to me at the time. I'd seen it coming but with Neji's prodigious talent he was the talk of the clan, every time he and I trained together there would be a different clan member, it would usually be one of our fellow branch members but from time to time one of the esteemed main family members would arrive complete with their better than thou attitude and god did it annoy me. It was bad enough that father only had eyes for Neji but to have the 'honourable' elders of the clan watch and compare us was just plain demeaning. There were constant whispers between the clan members all of them along the same lines:

"He truly is talented isn't he, a prodigy even..."

"I feel for Hato, it's bad enough to be in the shadow of the main family but he can't even get out of his own brothers shadow"

I'm Hato by the way, translates to dove of all things... honestly could they have picked a less manly name, between this and the classic Hyūga look there was no way anyone was going to think I was a guy.

By the time we were four things in my opinion were going swimmingly, sure I still hadn't caught up to my brother in any way shape or form but I was still doing better than expected for my age, I had activated my Byakugan and was progressing quickly in the art of the Gentle Fist, that's to say I was doing far better than the heiress Hinata though that was to be expected I suppose, she hadn't really gotten good until after the Chūnin exams. Of course it was during this time that once again everything went to shit.

The clan heiress's 3rd birthday was coming up, this for a reason that would soon become unfortunately clear caused somewhat of a stir within the branch families of the Hyūga clan with parents worriedly glancing at their younger children more often than I had ever noticed before. It really should have been clear to me at that stage what was about to happen but I suppose the 4 years of relative peace had dulled whatever specifics I had remembered about my clan.

Sometime before her birthday, probably a week or so to make a tentative guess our father informed Neji and I that we would be attending a clan gathering to honour the young Hinata and that we would be expected to stay afterwards for a special ceremony, the tone my father used raised alarm bells immediately, he somehow managed to incorporate fear, anger and righteous indignation into his voice all at the same time and to be completely honest it was terrifying. Neji who at that time was simply a little ball of sunshine, constantly smiling without a care in the world that wasn't training didn't seem to pick up on it but I was not pleased, my adult mind was desperately trying to understand what might be going on but the closest I got was that there might be a combat exercise and that didn't even begin to cover what actually happened that night.

I remember being forced into the unexpectedly comfortable formal kimono style robes that were required for functions of this level. I remember the walk to the main house, relatively short but made inexplicably longer by the dread that fathers voice had instilled in me. I remember waiting outside of what had the be the largest and most elegant house that I had ever seen and that was including the 20 or so years of life I had in the _other world_. From then on everything was intense in that i was interacting with people who by all rights were my superiors within the clan, I'd been talking for years so there was no getting out of polite conversation. With my brother by my side I was introduced to the Elders of the Hyūga clan, by god were they an uptight bunch I was almost glad to have been born to the branch side of the family as I only ever really had to deal with them watching me train and by now I could tolerate that. After the Elders came the guest of honour, or as you know her: Hinata Hyūga.

From what I knew she was a lovable but incredibly shy little girl who would at some point soon develop a hero worship type adoration of my dear older brother. However, rather than wanting to spend more time with us and properly get to know each other she was gone almost as soon as we had introduced ourselves. I won't hold it against her though, she was likely rather busy that night given what she was about to be given control over.

The party itself was over faster than I had dared hope and honestly all I wanted to do was politely excuse myself and run for the hills before anything happened, in fact I did try to excuse myself only to be rudely glared at by daddy-dearest in a way that could only mean "Not happening". It was shortly after that embarrassment that all of the branch members were gathered together and taken out to one of the larger, less homely buildings that might as well have been used as a warehouse or perhaps a large dojo. It was at this point that my nerves resurfaced with a vengeance, I had finally figured out what the hell was going to happen, I'd realised it was time for me to be caged.

The entire branch family had been gathered, from the eldest members down to the very youngest of us, those being Neji and I. We were assembled in what could only have been the main family dojo, it was a tight fit with all of us in there though that would quickly change. It was at this point that we were formally told what would be happening, the entire branch family with the exception of my brother and I would be undergoing what was essentially a change of hands. While my brother and I were taken outside of the building by two scowling Hyūga elders the others were forced to kneel in subjugation to the heiress Hinata. Apparently each time a new air reaches the age where they are given control over our cursed seal a ritual must be conducted to allow said heir to activate the seal, it was intended to be an added precaution just in-case the secret hand-sign was ever stolen by one of our many enemies. It was however a quick ritual and in and then out type of thing, however even after they had completed their side of the ritual we were not allowed to meet with the rest of the branch family including our father.

After all my brother and I were here for a somewhat more involved time, as the two youngest in the branch family we were the only two not to have previously received the cursed seal of the Hyūga clan and apparently that was due to change. At this point in time it was rather late at night, long after my brother and I would have normally gone to bed but there we were sitting close to one another in the now empty dojo. I remember we were shivering not from the cold but rather from dread, Neji from his abstract understanding of the concept of a seal and his worry that it would hurt and me from my knowledge of exactly what this seal would symbolise in the future.

Coming from a land where this would amount to horrible slavery and torture the idea of this seal really did bother me, I couldn't understand how any of the Hokage had allowed to this to flourish within the clan. I knew that it would be political suicide to mess with the clans but seriously this was a human rights violation if I had ever seen one.

Soon enough we were told that the elders were ready for us, of course we rose together comforted by the fact that regardless of what happened we would be together for it, this was however quickly crushed. With one look at the elders I could tell that I wasn't wanted, not yet.

"Sit down boy, your time will come soon enough"

I hate to admit it but I froze, I couldn't create conflict but my brother would need me and I could just let him go on his own. Though with one glance to him again this idea was shattered, I could tell he was scared but he was trying to be brave and I couldn't take that away from him, so with a final squeeze of his hand I let him go and sat back down.

At first there was only the near silence of murmured voiced in the distance, it wasn't a warm silence nor was it companionable but it could have been worse, in fact it did get worse. From the far end of the dojo came a chilling scream, this wasn't a roar of anger or a wait of sadness but a scream of such pure pain that I found myself unable to move, there was nothing I could do but watch that end door and hope to god that my brother came out alive.

He never did walk out of that door, which at that moment caused me more terror than I would care to admit but I didn't really get a chance to think too much about that as mere moments after his screams stopped I was asked to follow the elder into what could only be described as slavery.

I was ushered into what I would forever remember as the hell room not because it was ringed with ritual hell-fire or any of that crap but because in the future whenever I was hit with one of the Hell viewing genjutsu, this room is what I saw. I was asked to kneel in the centre of the room, outlined with countless dark lines in what I could only assume was an extremely elaborate set of seals with the sole purpose of taking away my independence from the clan for however long I survived in this world. From there they painted the classic seal on my forehead beneath the fringe that I had grown and would likely continue to grow just to hide what I was about to receive. Now comes the painful part, Hinata was brought into the room. She stood in front of me and for what was only the second time that night she placed her palm on the pre-drawn seal. With a cry of "Seal" my world exploded, I can only assume that as a part of the sealing process the seal has to fully activate all of its components included the whole brain-soup part. My god it hurt, the pain blocked out all of my other senses once again there was nothing and it terrified me. Luckily it passed quickly, I was quickly pulled to my feet and ushered out of the room into the waiting arms of my father who for the first time in this new fledgling life of mine looked ready to cry, whether it was out of anger or sadness I'll never know but at the time for whatever reason it made me feel valued. It did of course help that my brother was standing beside him looking pale but alive.

From the moment we returned home both Neji and I cried and cried and cried. He cried from the memory of the mind breaking pain and I cried from the realisation that this horrible and cruel world was where I had to live and that I might not even stand a chance.

We were trapped within a cage of painted lines and unspeakable pain and there would be no escape.


	2. Unfortunate Consequences

**AN: Sorry this one is a little shorter but I was trying to build up an atmosphere and I am still very new to writing. Let me know whether I made any progress or if there are any glaring issues, I seem to have a habit of messing up genders so for clarification Hato is a guy and if I seem to contradict that please let me know and I'll fix it. Anyway hope you like it!**

* * *

 _Because life's greatest lessons are learned through pain._

 _~Nagato/Pain_

* * *

After receiving that accursed seal everything became noticeably more difficult. Turns out that all of the training my brother and I had done beforehand was the equivalent of Gentle Fist for dummies. It makes sense though when you think about it, at that point our eyes could have very easily been taken and if we were too confident in our abilities we would be far more likely to wander off into dangerous situations. As such from the moment we were sealed our training was stepped up a notch, by that I mean every waking moment of my young life from then on was spent training. There were weights and agility exercises, basic hand-seals, and needless to say endless running.

Our father had become a very exacting taskmaster, there were no kind words of encouragement nor was there any gentle coddling. Training was hard, fast and very competitive. Looking back I think dear ole dad was setting the two of us against each other, every kata one would receive an approving nod and the other a harsh glare of disappointment. Funnily enough I almost always received the glares. Though of course Neji's complete and utter domination over me didn't make him any less competitive, it was as if the kind and caring brother I had known was destroyed by the seal and replaced with a boy who wanted to, no, had to be the best.

There was in fact only one area where I could beat him, and that was throwing weapons. Whether it be shuriken, kunai or senbon I was undeniably better and he hated it. I only rarely missed and most often hit the centre ring of the target and god did I love it. He however was prone to missing completely and to my amazement simply could not get the hang of it. I tried to help him, I really did but he was at that stage were accepting help _obviously_ made him weak, eh I figured he would get it eventually regardless of my help. He did get to Jōnin from memory so surely he'd figure it out, he was a genius after all.

The senbon were always my favourite, with the Byakugan I knew I could turn it into a horrifying weapon if only the clan wasn't so against it. The clan itself held a highly negative opinion to any ninja art that wasn't the pure and undiluted Gentle Fist. I had seen members of the clan ostracised for daring to indulge in elemental jutsu, let alone senbon which seemed to be the antithesis of Hyūga style Taijutsu, discrete and from a distance rather than up close and personal. This of course meant that just by being good with senbon I had earned the disapproval of the entire goddamn clan. Some of the more uptight elders would look at me as if I were the second coming of the Nine-Tailed Fox, god if this was how they treated me just because I liked needles no wonder Naruto had such a shit time of things.

* * *

Our training seemed to go on endlessly, day in day out we were at the branch families training grounds working our asses off. There were new Taijutsu combinations and katas every single day, we would be shown a maximum of twice and if we couldn't learn it from that the disappointed glare made its unwelcomed return. Neji of course was absolutely fine with this new approach to training, in fact I dare say he enjoyed it immensely. Every day he got better, he was always that little bit faster than the day before or able to run that little bit longer and it got on my nerves. I worked just as hard as he did if not harder and yet I got that same godforsaken glare every single fucking day because I wasn't a genius, because I wasn't the best.

As you can imagine this got on my nerves very quickly, I was developing some seriously jealousy that not even my adult mind could calmly process and resolve. I knew that if I wasn't careful I could quickly become the person Neji was during the Chūnin exams and I really didn't like that. I figured that I had to deal with it sooner or later and as such I might as well speak to my father about it now rather than later.

"Father, may I speak with you for a moment" I asked as we were leaving the branch training grounds.

"If we must" he replied with what could only be described as a bored expression "Will we require privacy?"

"It would likely be for the best Father" I responded in the most respectful tone I could manage. I thought that he really wasn't going to be happy with where this conversation was going to go but just the same I knew that it had to be done. If I wanted to get over all of this bullshit I needed to get it out first. I needed to know why he looked at me with such scorn regardless of my efforts.

"Well, follow me then" my father stated in an almost abrupt manner as he spun on his heel and walked away.

As I followed him throughout the compound I grew more and more nervous, what the hell was I thinking? He is not going to take this well at all, I wouldn't be surprised if he kicked me out of the clan for this. I know that he would have noticed when I started fidgeting, it was a supremely un-Hyūga like bit of behaviour. On any other day he would have put me through hell for being so undignified, but for whatever reason he just kept on walking. At any rate the walk at the time seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning throughout the compound until we reached what appeared to be a small koi pond with Sakura trees overhead. I know its cliché as hell, I thought the exact same thing but I suppose it would have to do.

"Sit" he said quietly, pointing to a bench under the Sakura tree.

"So what exactly do you want to talk to me about Hato?" he asked, staring directly into my eyes without a trace of hesitation.

"Father, do you hate me?" I asked in a voice that might as well have been a murmur.

"No." he said without a hint of doubt.

"So if you don't hate me, why the hell do you look at me as if I'm scum even though I do everything I can to get better? Even though I work just as hard as Neji ever does?" I challenged.

"Ah… I figured it might end up being something like that." he said diplomatically "I'm afraid you'll likely not enjoy the answer."

"Explain." I said in a manner entirely unsuitable for the 4 year old I was. I suppose I had lost sight of my plan to, you know, not come across like an adult but I couldn't stop myself.

"How do you think the clan would react if I coddled you?" he asked pointedly "By treating you as inferior or scum as you put it, I am stopping them from taking things into their own hands, it's obvious that you aren't as good as Neji but at least this way it looks as if I am doing something about it."

"But..." I stuttered "Why do they care?"

"They care because you _could have been_ the heir to the clan. They care because you are _so_ much better than the actual heir that it makes her look bad, and that's without anyone comparing the two of you to Neji"

"Am I really that much better than Hinata?" I questioned

"Yes, she isn't anywhere near your level"

"Wow, how can she be that bad? She has all of the tutors she could ever need" I asked

" **How dare you badmouth the heir!** " yelled a grizzled voice from behind me.

Needless to say I froze, I knew that there was nothing I could say or do to save me from whatever foul punishment the elder wanted to extract. I slowly turned around with the aim of dropping to my knees and apologising until my voice was hoarse. However I didn't even get to turn before the world erupted into the fiercest agony I had ever felt. It was so much worse that the original sealing, this time it was done maliciously and as I quickly learnt, intent affects the outcome when it come to chakra.

It seemed to go on and on and on, an endless stream of mind-shattering agony. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't even think about how much it hurt. Then it was over. I opened my eyes to see my father standing over me in a blaze of indignant fury, his vehement anger was radiating from every one of his 361 tenketsu. His killing intent was startling, I have a feeling it probably shocked the elder just as much as it did me, for instead of immediately activating my fathers cursed seal he instead retreated, muttering under his breath.

As the elder ran away like a dog with its tail between its legs my father hauled me to my feet before looking me in the eye and asking "Will you be alright?"

"Y-yes I think so, just give me a moment to collect myself" I replied weakly.

"You're going to be punished for that aren't you?" I asked after I had caught my breath.

"Most likely" he said vacantly.

"I-I am sorry Father, this is my fault" I responded quietly, disgusted with my own behaviour, if I hadn't felt the need to confront my father over training none of this would have happened. What the hell was I thinking?

"It isn't your fault Hato, I shouldn't have ever mentioned the heiress." He responded firmly. "It was a foolish mistake on my part."

"Now, you should return home. Do you remember the way?"

"Yes, I can make my way home alone"

"Good, now Hato you can't blame yourself for what might happen. Do you understand me?" he asked with a serious tone.

"Yes father, I understand' I responded meekly.

"Good, now go. I shall see you later tonight"

He then simply turned around and left, walking away to the main family estate. He was content to face his punishment without fear or hesitation. If anything he acted as if he was proud of the fact that he was about to be punished, I'll always remember that. If nothing else, he was a protective father even if he beat us black and blue during training.

* * *

I went straight home, I didn't stop to talk to any of the friendlier branch members. I just walked and walked, carefully retracing the steps I had taken that morning. Step. Step. Step. Every moment was filled with the thought "How do I tell Neji?"

I knew he would hate me if he learnt that I had gotten father into trouble, with the level of hero worship and adoration that Neji held for him I wouldn't be getting off lightly. I could vaguely recall that when something happened to Hizashi in the main story-line as a result of main house fiascoes it sent him off the deep end. I might not have been able to recall the details of what exactly happened but I hoped to god that this wouldn't have the same result.

I arrived at the front door, face pale and drawn only to be met with my concerned brother the moment I went to let myself in. He took one look at me and knew that something had gone wrong, very, very wrong.

"Hato, what happened?" he asked cautiously.

"Neji, Father and I… we had a conversation in a bad place and one of the elders took offence" I replied honestly.

"The elder activated my seal but father stopped him before he could seriously injure me" I continued "The elder really didn't like that so father sent me home and went to formally apologise."

"Oh… are you okay Hato?"

I was shocked, he wasn't even mad. He didn't respond with hatred or despair, only concern and love. I could only hope that he would continue on this way when I told him what was worrying me.

"Not really, but that's not important right now, I'm just worried about Father" I answered him.

"Why? Isn't he just going to apologise?" he asked confusedly

"Neji, the elders are going to be really angry that he stood up to them like that. I think they'll punish him like they did me, just worse"

"Oh… oh is he going to be okay" he ask worriedly in a tone that reminded me that for all I had an adult mind he did not, he was a four year old who was scared that his daddy wasn't going to come home.

"I really hope so Neji"

After that the conversation ended, both of us were far too worried about what would be done to our father to be engaging in small talk. Hours passed and still father had not returned, we fell asleep in the living room of our house waiting but we never did see him come in. I suppose as a Jōnin he wouldn't have had all that much trouble sneaking past two mostly untrained four year olds even if he was in a great deal of pain.

My first thought upon waking up was of my father, so of course I gently roused little Neji and together we checked fathers chambers. Thank god he was there, he looked exhausted and nearly dead but he was there. With a pointed disregard for Hyūga etiquette I climbed onto the bed, hauling my brother up after me. Father didn't open his eyes but he did relax, as if some kind of weight was lifted off of his shoulders. It was almost like he was scared we would hate him, the fact that he thought this terrified me. Just what did they do to my poor father to make him think that his family would reject him? It was in this moment that I knew I would have to change things, up until this point I hadn't attempted to make any lasting change to the timeline other than what was already caused by my existence. But I couldn't let this seal continue, I knew it was the dream of Hinata to change the Hyūga clan and in that moment I vowed to do whatever it took to help her. I would learn sealing, I would become as good as anyone else in the village no matter what I had to do and I would eradicate this cursed seal from existence. I would do it, I had to.

While I might have just had the realisation that would catalyse my life in this world the small amount of sleep that my brother and I had gotten earlier hadn't made up for the emotional tension that we had felt from the time I came home. So we slept and for the first time in this life I felt properly connected with the people I would go on to call my precious family.


	3. An Unexpected Death

_Sacrificing your happiness for the happiness of the one you love,_

 _is by far,_

 _the truest kind of love._

 _~Henry David Thoreau_

* * *

I really should have known better than to expect everything to remain so wonderfully calm. It's common knowledge to any Naruto fan that the Naruto-verse is an asshole. Anything and everything happy or nice is simply not permitted.

It would have only been a week after our father's punishment/ torture session that we faced what was the worst thing by far that had happened up until that point. We were in for a time of pain and suffering and there was nothing we could do to stop it.

* * *

The Byakugan of the Hyūga clan is an extremely powerful tool, and by extension it was very much desired by the rest of the ninja world. Cloud in particular had a fascination/fetish for the Byakugan that the clan really should have noticed earlier.

I honestly don't know how I forgot this of all things. I can only theorise that this world was trying desperately to remove what it deemed as unnatural, that being my memories of the _otherworld._ I had noticed that it was starting to fade, the names of pets, the faces of my other parents, the adventures I'd had at school. It was all starting to go, sure I clearly remembered the major events like Pain and the Akatsuki but there was no way in hell I remembered all of the subtleties that existed in this world.

It was because of this that I didn't get the chance to change anything.

The news came very early one morning, it arrived with a main house messenger crashing through our front door and demanding to speak with our father. I knew that something was wrong, no one from the main house would be caught dead in a branch home otherwise.

They walked outside and talked fervently just outside of our hearing range. The only indication Neji and I had that my father was distressed was the slight stiffening of his posture, a sight that the two of us had only seen immediately before we had been collected for the sealing ritual.

Their conversation ended quickly with father ordering the messenger to leave with the promise that he himself would follow quickly.

"Children, come here" he ordered briskly.

"Yes Father" Neji and I replied dutifully, walking over to him quickly.

"I have to go, I don't know when I'll be back but I shall try to return quickly"

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" I asked.

"Yes something did happen, but you shouldn't worry I am sure everything will be managed quickly" he responded softly. "I have to leave now, but remember I love you. Never forget that."

"Yes father"

With that he walked out of the door, leaving Neji and I alone to wait for news of what had happened. I knew that in times like this we weren't meant to wander around the compound and so Neji and I sat stiffly in the main room of our house and waited, and waited, and waited.

It was hours before anything happened, we hadn't even had a knock on the door from a neighbour checking if we were okay. Instead all we got was yet another main house messenger opening the front door and letting themselves in, they didn't even bother to remove their footwear. I suppose the shame of touching anything of the branch with bare flesh was just too much for the overly entitled little brat.

He quickly walked over to us and motioned for us to follow him, of course we obviously weren't noble enough for him to grace us with an explanation so we were forced to follow him through the compound with no idea where the hell we were going. I noticed as we went that the few branch members who were outside of their homes were giving me strange looks. Every single one of them was gazing at us with sympathy of all things, even in the branch clan this was not normal Hyūga behaviour.

I knew that something had to of happened, something terrible if it had been able to break through the renowned Hyūga composure.

I figured at the time that if I couldn't remember it, it couldn't be all that bad right? I mean it couldn't be anything on the same level as Pain or Madara.

It must have only been something like a 15 minute walk but it seemed to go for hours. One step after another through the strangely silent compound until we reached the main compound. Shit, being taken to the main house was never a good sign. So far the only dealings that I'd had with the main house had involved pain, lots and lots of pain. Between getting the seal and having it activated by the asshole elder I didn't really have all that many reasons to be trusting of these people. Nonetheless Neji and I approached quietly with all of the respect that we could muster.

We were met at the door by none other than our uncle Hisashi. This in itself was a shock, what could the head of the entire clan want with us? No matter what it was, it wasn't going to be good. Branch house members simply didn't meet with the main house, even if you were closely related.

"Follow" Hisashi ordered as he turned on his heel and walked off.

My brother and I silently followed behind him, head and eyes pointed down to the floor as was expected of any branch member. We were not to question the desires of the clan head, nor were we to speak unless asked a direct question. We walked until we reached what looked like a small sunroom, though it was likely intended as a meeting place solely for the use of the clan head.

"Sit" the clan head said as he gestured to a small table.

We sat, becoming more and more nervous as silenced reigned. At first no one said anything, the only form of communication that was being employed was a series of meaningful, loaded glances. Hisashi seemed highly uncomfortable by whatever he felt he had to say, I mean he wasn't fidgeting or anything like that but there was a strange stiffness to his posture not unlike what we had seen earlier with father.

"Your Father has passed." He said after the long silence.

That was it, the uncomfortable quiet was gone. Replaced with a dark, crushing sensation not unlike what I imagine it would feel like to be hit by a train. Suddenly it rushed back.

The kidnapping.

Hinata.

The dead Cloud shinobi.

Cloud's demand for the killer's body.

Father's sacrifice.

How could I have forgotten this, out of every event in the fucking Naruto verse I forgot the single one that was likely to affect me as a child. I in my forgetfulness has lost any chance I might have had to save my Father. I had failed to protect one of my precious family.

 **"** **How did he die?!"** Neji asked forcefully, giving Hisashi a glare that would have made a basilisk proud.

"He died to save my life." Hisashi responded quickly.

"Why would he do that? Why would he leave us?" Neji cried "He wouldn't do that, he wouldn't leave us for you. You forced him to didn't you? You killed him to save your own life?"

"N-Neji" I murmured "Just leave it, Hisashi wouldn't do that to his own brother right?"

"Since when has he ever cared about us?! He just killed Father, why would we just leave it!?" Neji said, raising his voice until he was screaming at us.

"Neji stop" I ordered

"Take him home and stay with him" Hisashi ordered one of the other main house members in the room.

"Yes sir"

"What about me?" I asked timidly.

"Stay, we need to talk further" Hisashi answered.

I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything that wouldn't just piss Neji off even more.

"Neji, go home. I'll be there soon don't worry" I said in what I hoped was a soothing manner.

"Fine, j-just make sure you actually come home" Neji murmured as he was escorted from the room.

* * *

"Hato, you seemed confident that I would be against sending your father to his death. Why?" Hisashi asked me.

"He was your brother." I responded firmly.

"I'm not known for my kindness towards my brother, what makes you believe I'd care that much for him?" there was a curious light in his eyes, as if he had unearthed something strange that hadn't been seen before.

This light worried me, I didn't want him thinking that there was anything particularly different about me. I didn't want him to believe that I was special, being special in this world was a curse. I knew that the situation itself was out of the ordinary, he had separated me from my brother for the sole purpose of asking me for my opinions. I was a four year old branch member, why should he care about my opinions? Truth is, he shouldn't and the fact he did terrified me.

"He was your brother, you wouldn't abandon him." I returned with what I hoped was a childish stubbornness.

"I suppose I shall have to accept your faith then." He muttered, all the while looking at me with that curious light in his eyes.

I knew that he had decided to let me go. He couldn't have truly thought that I had answered him truthfully. He was an expertly trained Ninja, my lacklustre attempt at deception might as well have been a signal fire directing him to my abnormality. A four year old was not meant to be able to "Look underneath the underneath" and see that the man who had allegedly been the cause of your dear daddy's death couldn't possibly have wanted it to occur. No, I should have just cried and raged with my brother. I guess the shock had affected me in such a way that I acted far too mature for my own good.

"Hato, I won't ask you to try and convince your brother of your belief but I sadly have to ask you to keep an eye on him. Do not allow him to become a danger to this clan." Hisashi articulated unhesitatingly. "I don't want to have to intervene. Do you understand Hato?"

"Yes, perfectly." I uttered.

I understood where he was coming from I really did, but for him to have the gall to threaten ' _intervention'_ with my brother really did piss me off. For all that he hadn't truly been the cause of my father's death it still hurt that he would make a threat so soon after. At this point I didn't even know what would be happening with my brother and I. We were only four so surely we wouldn't be expected to become independent members of the clan right?

"Good, now you should return to your brother." Hisashi ordered. "And Hato, I truly am sorry about your father. I wish it could have been avoided."

"Thank you" I murmured as I walked out of the room, intent on returning to my brother.

* * *

"I'm home" I called out as I walked through our door.

I hadn't expected Neji to welcome me home with open arms or anything of the sort for that matter, but I certainly didn't expect him to be sitting silently in the middle of our living room. He had his back turned to me and gave no indication that he had even heard me arrive. There was no movement from him other than the slight rise and fall of his shoulders that indicated he was still breathing.

Jesus how mad would he have to be to not even talk to me, for all that he was a competitive little bastard he had never been cold to me. Didn't he understand that it was _our_ father that had just died? Couldn't he spare just a little kindness for his big brother? I know I could have used a hug at that point after the conversation I had with the clan head. I needed to know that he wasn't going to be the threat that Hisashi feared.

"Neji?" I called out questioningly.

"What? Have you finally decided to come home?" Neji responded testily.

"I wasn't gone for that long Neji." I muttered, starting to get mad. It wasn't my choice to stay and talk to Hisashi and Neji knew that.

"You were still gone. I was still alone." He said, finally turning around to look me in the eye.

"What do you mean you were alone? I though the main house guy was going to stay with you?" I asked.

No wonder he was upset; his dad had just died; his brother was with the person he thought responsible for Hizashi's death and then he was left alone in the house he had shared with his family. Fuck that was not okay. When I found the guy that had walked away from my brother and left him here I would flay him alive slowly before rolling him in lemon juice. Well maybe I wouldn't go that far, but I would fucking glare at him for all I was worth that's for sure.

"He left." Neji answered back bluntly.

"That ass!" I bit out "He shouldn't have left you, you shouldn't have been alone! If I'd known he'd leave you I wouldn't have stayed behind"

If anything Neji just looked surprised at the word "ass". True he was four and any sort of bad language was the antithesis of correct Hyūga behaviour but I had not expected that to be the only thing required to break him out his sulk.

"I wouldn't have let you go if I'd known that Neji, I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry." I said in what I tried to make a comforting manner. Knowing me and the fact I was only four it was probably weird as fuck but thankfully there wasn't an adult there to notice how strangely adult I was acting.

"Really?" he whispered, choking halfway through the word.

"Of course big brother, I'm not gonna leave you alone." I said soothingly.

He didn't answer, instead opting for the tried and true flood of tears. I had never seen a Hyūga child cry like this, let alone the ever-stoic Neji. There was nothing more that could be said tonight, the strong emotions had taken their toll and we were both exhausted in every sense of the word.

"Come on Neji let's go to bed, we can deal with the rest tomorrow" I told him knowing that this time he wouldn't argue.

"Ok".


	4. Explanations

**AN: Hi guys, hope your enjoying it! Sorry for the strangely paced updates, I'm pretty much writing and uploading as I go so cant really guarantee any schedule right now. Anyway hope you're liking it and make sure to leave a review if you do! :)**

* * *

 _Who cares if you're weak?_

 _If we band together we can do anything!_

 _~Charla (Fairy Tail)_

* * *

I woke to dread. Neji was asleep beside me but that wouldn't last long and I wasn't going to be able to palm this off with a simple "we can deal with it tomorrow". No. This time I had to try and take Neji through what had happened, the only issue with that was that I hadn't actually been told what had happened. I mean I already knew but it would be highly suspicious to reveal that to anyone, even Neji.

I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. Could I make it seem as if I was just guessing? Could I act as if I'd overheard something? Could I just pretend to have put together the pieces and figured it out myself?

It was a no to all of those options, the last especially. Given how intent Hiashi was the previous day, painting myself as some kind of analytical genius was a very, very bad idea. I'd have preferred to attract a grand total of zero attention, there were too many nasty figures in the village to risk it. I knew that in the show Danzo had taken a lot of clan members for ROOT and while I couldn't remember any Hyūga in the organisation that didn't mean he wouldn't take interest in me.

I had to handle this like a child would, with blind faith and unwavering confidence. I would take the same approach with Neji as I had with the clan head. I would merely say 'They were brothers, he wouldn't do that.' I would say that however many times it took to get Neji to accept it. Maybe if he accepted that now, he would have an easier time accepting the truth later on. I could only hope.

"You awake Hato?" Neji asked groggily.

"Yeah I'm up." I answered "You okay?"

"I don't know…" he looked crushed, it was as if every fibre of strength had been torn away from him and destroyed while he watched.

"You don't have to be okay, you just lost your Father. You can be sad" I murmured. I shuffled closed so that our sides were touching. Dropping my head onto his shoulder I whispered "It'll be okay though".

Neji was silent, but this wasn't a comfortable silence. He was very quickly going from sad to absolutely fucking pissed and I had no idea why. Had I said something wrong? Surely I couldn't have fucked up that quickly. Turns out my plan was utterly useless, he didn't even want an explanation from me. It looked as if the very thought of asking what had really happened hadn't even occurred to him.

" **We. We just lost our Father."** Neji said gaining volume with every word **"How are you just going on like it's all okay? How can you tell me I can be sad!? Why should I be sad when you aren't?"** he was losing steam at this point but he had one final blow remaining **"Why are you** _so okay…?_ **"**

"Neji… Neji I'm not okay. I'm hurting just as much as you are." I whispered. I could feel the tears coming and there was no stopping them. Much like Neji last night it was a seemingly endless stream complete with gushing sobs and unsightly expression. "I-I just wanted to be strong for you. I wanted to be there for you." I was choking on every second syllable but I had to get this out "I wanted to help you for once…"

"Hato, you're stupid." there was absolutely no hesitation in his voice, it was firm and non-consoling as if he was disciplining a pet.

"W-what" I stammered out.

"I don't want you to be strong for me" he said looking down "I just want us to be together".

Just as I though the tears were going to stop he had to go and say something as sweet as that. There was no saving me from this second flood of tears, this time however Neji joined me. We wrapped our arms around each other and cried and cried and cried, simply taking comfort in the fact we still had each other.

It was to this sight that Hiashi walked into the room. He was all grace and power walking with the same effortless presence as Father always had. Luckily for the two of us he was wearing formal, main house robes and thus couldn't be mistaken for Father. At the sight of Neji and I curled up and weeping there was an almost unnoticeable softening to his features, I don't know if it was out of shared grief or plain pity but he simply sat down and waited without making any demands.

I'll admit it took us some time to collect ourselves enough to be able to get out of bed but we managed and so finally disentangling with each other we rose and went to greet our _'Guest'._

We simply kneeled in front of him in supplication before leaning back and looking at him questioningly.

"I'm here to explain more of what happened to your father." he declared "He asked me to wait until you were older but I have decided that you should know."

The two of us were about as shocked as you can imagine. The clan head had come _to us_ to _explain himself_. This was more than we ever could have hoped for, the clan head was supposedly above this but I suppose our close blood ties must have done us some good. I was certainly pretty happy with it, at least this way my earlier worries were completely removed. It would be so much easier to pass off the responsibility of explanations to Hiashi and then just focus on comforting my brother.

"Early yesterday Hinata was kidnapped" he started "While I managed to stop the perpetrators from taking her I was forced to kill them. However their village decided they wanted the body of the killer, mostly because they wanted my Byakugan."

"So you forced Father to go instead then didn't you?" Neji retorted furiously.

"No. I was prepared to remove my eyes and then give myself to them." Hiashi answered unhesitatingly "My brother wouldn't accept that."

"What do you mean he wouldn't accept that" I asked, decided to play along with my role as the unknowing child.

"He volunteered himself, he had the seal so letting him go wouldn't harm the clan irreversibly. I tried to refuse him but he had already convinced the elders, there was nothing I could do."

"So he chose to leave us…" Neji whispered. It was obvious that the mere thought of this was destroying him. He couldn't understand why Hizashi would ever choose his cold and unfeeling brother over his own children. In a way I could understand Neji's attitude but my mental age lent me the ability to deconstruct the scenario in a way that my brother could hope to do for a while yet.

"No, he chose to protect us by protecting the clan. Right?" I ventured gently.

"Correct, in fact he said something very similar to me before he left." Hiashi agreed slowly.

"Neji think about it, what would have happened if the clan head died. The heiress is only our age" I pointed out, the image was a pretty scary one. The clan was fucked up enough without the asshole elders taking complete control through a perfectly legal regency.

"I-I guess you're right, Father would have done it without a good reason and I guess what you're saying makes sense." Neji was hesitantly agreeing! This was good, this was really, really good. If he continued like this then perhaps he wouldn't turn into such a hateful prick later on, who knows maybe I could avoid him being wrecked by Naruto. There was only one last hurdle we had to cover, I had to make sure that he didn't blame anyone. Especially Hinata.

"Neji, as much as it hurts Father choose this for himself. We should trust him to make the right choice." I wanted, no I _needed_ him to understand this. If he could get his head around this then it was pretty certain he wouldn't place the blame on anyone's shoulders.

"I know… and I do trust him. I'm just mad."

"What are you mad at Neji? Are you angry with Father? Hiashi? The clan itself?" I hoped to god that he would answer intelligently, he might only be four but I was praying to anything that would listen that he wouldn't be dumb enough to become the threat that Hiashi feared.

"I-I don't know, everything I guess. I'm angry that it happened, that's it." While Neji might have sounded grumpy as hell I have to say that I was hugely pleased with what he said. With his childish manner he made his anger seem inconsequential and harmless and goddamn I wanted to kiss him for it.

"I understand your anger Neji, I'm not exactly pleased with the situation myself" this time it was Hiashi speaking "He and I might not have been close but he was still my brother and I certainly didn't want anything like this for him, especially when he had children such as yourselves to care for.".

"Hiashi, now that Father's gone, who is going to care for us now?" I'd been wanting to ask this since he walked into the room, I couldn't remember anything from the show that told me what had happened to Neji after his father had died. I was as much curious as I was worried, I might have the mental age of a 20 year old but I certainly didn't have the skills to become financially independent with my current 4 year old body. I assumed that we would been given some nasty old wretch as a caregiver like in the story of Cinderella or put into some clan orphanage. I mean we were a ninja clan and surely there would be a relatively large group of orphans especially after the Kyuubi attack.

"I have organised a suitable caretaker for the both of you until you reach the age of majority." Hiashi answered quickly. I suppose that made sense, for all that we were branch house we had a pretty solid connection to the main family so it would have been unlikely for anything else to have happened. I imagine this was just as much for Hiashi as it was for us, he would have unprecedented control over our upbringing and thus our development simply by tailoring our Caretaker to suit his needs. I'll admit I was pretty worried that he would place us with some pretentious main house asshole who'd force us to behave in the perfect Hyūga manner for the rest of our lives without fail. God knows I wouldn't be able to handle that no matter how adult my mind might be, I simply wasn't well suited to a life of propriety.

"Her name is Emi. She is a member of the branch family and will be staying with you as your guardian." Hiashi said this slowly, I'm pretty sure he was worried that there would be some kind of outcry.

Much to his surprise there was no such trouble. For all that we were still hurting from the loss of our father we both knew that we wouldn't survive on our own, we needed someone to look after us for a little while yet. I suppose the fact that she was from the branch family also helped, it certainly gave me some peace of mind. While Neji and I were more closely affiliated with the Main House than many other branch members we still weren't comfortable with them and after the _kindness_ that my brother had received from them in the last day that wasn't likely to change anytime soon.

Neji and I merely bowed our heads in acceptance. Needless to say Hiashi was surprised by our meek obedience, understandable given the dramas with Neji that had happened so recently.

"When will we meet her?" I asked curiously. Given the speed that recent events had transpired with, I was honestly surprised that he had even gotten around to organising anything. If anything I was expecting him to tell me that there would be a wait of at least a week before we would meet this mysterious Emi.

"She will be here later today'.

What… Hiashi must have pulled some major strings to get all this sorted literally overnight. I knew that as the clan head he had a lot of power but for anyone to just immediately agree to take on two children, two orphans, he must have either used some serious political leverage or had some divine interference.

"Will she be able to train us?" Neji piped up questioningly. Of course he had to ask about training, it was one thing that hadn't even crossed my mind but knowing Neji the idea of no longer having a teacher was probably as painful as the thought of waking up without legs.

"Yes."

I gave a disgruntled sigh, this woman wasn't going to be some middle aged daisy was she. What's the bet she was some harsh branch elder dedicated to training us to within an inch of our lives, then again that wouldn't be too different from what we were used to.

"Good" Neji replied with what might have been just a hint of a smile. Honestly after all the shit that's just gone on _this_ is what made him smile? Well at least he didn't look quite as gloomy as before, but seriously how much does this bastard love training?

"We'll see" Hiashi said with… oh my god was that a _smirk?!_ I thought that smirking was reserved for the Uchiha. God now I'm just scared, what sort of monster trainer would this woman be if the thought of her training us made Hiashi smirk…?

I think the look of sheer terror on my face must amused Hiashi greatly for he gave a small chuckle, which for a Hyūga was the equivalent to a full blown belly laugh.

"You needn't worry Hato, I very much doubt she will be any harsher than you are used to. Though I do admit her teaching style may take some getting used to."

Both Neji and I nodded. I could just tell that Neji was excited, and honestly that made me seriously happy. No matter how strange or demonic this Emi might be, if she could stop Neji from sinking deep into grief and anger she'd be fine with me.

 ** _Knock knock knock_**

"Ah that would be her. Shall we go and meet her?"

"Yes Hiashi." the two of us chorused.


End file.
